When you arrived at CH, were you already a sweary little tyke who effed and blinded virtually non-stop, both by day and by night? Or were you a sweet and innocent little lambkin who didn't even know what 'bum' meant? If the latter, did your peer group at CH soon sort you out and set you a-swearin' and a-cussin' like all kids do who want to fit in? Or did you spend your Housey years chaste of gob, with ne'er an eff nor a blind in your entire school career?

And how have things shaped up since? Do you still eff it like a docker all these years later? Or have you forced yourself to moderate your language? Did your spouse make you knock the sweary stuff on the head? Or, spouse or no spouse, did you only stop swearing when you became a vicar?

How do you feel when you hear elderly men and women effing it proper? Do you think it's all wrong and that old folks simply shouldn't do that kind of thing because it's unseemly - and yet you still do it yourself and can't envisage stopping when you reach 75?

I think the thing I learned most about colloquial language at CH was the swift nasty (and usually) puerile put-down. However, I have always been one to swear most vigorously and I think I was able to casually assimilate my contemporaries' swearbox-bound vocabulary and use it as my own. I have had an additional 27 years of training since my leaving service and am still learning.

When I am spending time on the garage on my Project Car, and things are not going according to plan, a vast array of unprintable words spew forth. I am also blessed in having a wife who has a vocabulary that will make most soldiers blush.

I knew several swear words before entering the hallowewd cloisters at Horsham, including the 'F' word, though I wasn't too sure of it's meaning.

....which reminds me of the first time I ever heard someone use the F-word, at my previous school. I asked my best mate "What does f*** mean?" and he replied "I think it's got something to do with pregnancy." Bless.

Last edited by Spoonbill on Tue Aug 22, 2017 9:26 am, edited 2 times in total.

I remember once, at a monitors' meeting, Pat Cullen telling us how he'd heard a junior say 'b****r you!' to someone, and he'd taken said junior aside and explained what it meant. I was not in the mood for debate, otherwise I would have asked what he would have done if the junior had said 'Damn you!' For if you are concerned with the 'meaning' of the word, surely it is far more heinous to wish someone's soul to be consigned to eternal torment, than that he should be buggered.

David Jesson-Dibley remarked once how swearing reflected the taboos of the age. In a religious age, 'religious' swear words were the worst (see above), but as religion declined in importance, so did the force of the words. In a society obsessed by sex, sexual searing became the most shocking. And (this was back in about 1960) he said he thought the next great taboo would be race. How true: you can now say f*** on television after 9pm, but try saying n****r.

Edit: I notice, on posting this, that 'b****r' has been automatically asterisked, but not 'damn'. Which illustrates the point perfectly.

At my Junior School, our class had to use another room to be told all about the school journey.
Ian Johnson (LaB) and I were to share a room and sat at adjacent desks. I amused myself by dipping my finger in the ink well and writing on the desk. Ian egged me on but carefully did not deface his desk.
After assembly the next day, my class was asked to return to the room we had used the night before and sit in the same desks. I then discovered that I had sat in my sister's desk, and that she had complained to her teacher about the rude rude words written on her desk. She would have told on me even if she had recognised my finger writing.
As a result I had to clean the desk, was de-prefected(?) and banned from the school play. Ian was neither a prefect nor in the play, nor had he written on the desk, so he got no punishment.
So yes, I did know how to swear before I got to CH.
I have always tried to blend in to whatever society I have landed in, so swore quite a lot when I was an apprentice at Vickers Armstrong, where most of the other apprentices had struggled to get on in Secondary Modern schools.
I actually got ejected from a language laboratory since I didn't realise that the teacher could listen in. She complained that I was not speaking Spanish nor acceptable English

Considering the mention of “Damn,” and in contrast to Tucker’s Law, I recollect one swearer of the 50s (history Grecian and Cambridge scholar) whose favourite expression, usually to juniors, was “Damn your eyesight”.

I actually got ejected from a language laboratory since I didn't realise that the teacher could listen in. She complained that I was not speaking Spanish nor acceptable English

Reminds me; at work I had to learn Llanito which is pretty close to Andaluz Spanish. However I was warned never ever to use certain words on the other side of the border where they were highly offensive. One of them was the local equivalent of darling (or similar affectionate name)!!!

Just think, if Africa had more mosquito nets, it would save millions of innocent mosquitoes from dying needlessly of AIDS.”

I actually got ejected from a language laboratory since I didn't realise that the teacher could listen in. She complained that I was not speaking Spanish nor acceptable English

Reminds me; at work I had to learn Llanito which is pretty close to Andaluz Spanish. However I was warned never ever to use certain words on the other side of the border where they were highly offensive. One of them was the local equivalent of darling (or similar affectionate name)!!!

I think that happens in many languages, particularly Spanish.
I got transferred from Bogota to Costa Rica.
In Colombia a "Chuspa" was used meaning a brown manila envelope.
Apparently in Costa Rica, it is slang for a part of the female anatomy.
Soon after my arrival I asked my Costa Rican secretary for a "chuspa", and she she got most upset.

The above sort of language divergence also occurred between French-French and Canadian-French. Both languages were identical in the 18th century, when “catin“ (= poupée) meant a child’s female doll in both countries. But their forms of language diverged until radio, films, TV, etc slowed such drifting apart. Yet many words in Quebec today remain different in meaning from the usage in France. One striking examples is “catin” which currently still means a child's doll in Canada, but in France, it’s a prostitute.

The above sort of language divergence also occurred between French-French and Canadian-French. Both languages were identical in the 18th century, when “catin“ (= poupée) meant a child’s female doll in both countries. But their forms of language diverged until radio, films, TV, etc slowed such drifting apart. Yet many words in Quebec today remain different in meaning from the usage in France. One striking examples is “catin” which currently still means a child's doll in Canada, but in France, it’s a prostitute.

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I think that that difference comes from the origins of what we now know as French. The country used to have two very diferent language bases known as Oil and Oc. Both are the respective words for the word "yes"

Oc (think of Languedoc - the language of Oc) covered the southern half of France up to about the level of Geneva. There are currently about eight major dialects from Provencal through to others in the west; in my area it was Languedocienne. (I am presently listening to lovely songs in Auvergnat). Catala (Catalan) looks similar but is not considered an Occitan language. They are Latin based and the more westerly ones I read and heard were closer to Spanish than to French. Occitan is a minor voluntary subject in the Bac and is used widely close to the Spanish border; on occasion I have been presented with the restaurant menu written in Catala. The hamlet where I lived - le Berrugat - is an Occitan word and the village Caudeval is derived from the Occitan "Caud Val" or hot valley.

In the north there were far far more variations of Oil. (Check http://members.societe-jersiaise.org/geraint/ for a taste of one - he is an OB). There was an effort in the 1600s to standardise the language but it was not successful; it took a revolution to do that. Modern French was developed from about five dialects, all in the Paris / Ile de France area.
Many of those who went to Canada came from further west so it is understandable that their original language (from which modern Canadienne stems) was very different. With Wofe's successes and subsequent developments many French speaking Canadians emigrated to the Louisiana area (itself once French) - I am in touch with a Cajun - his variety of "French" seems totally incomprehensible to me

Just think, if Africa had more mosquito nets, it would save millions of innocent mosquitoes from dying needlessly of AIDS.”